Main image: Bagram airbase after all US and Nato troops left Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
Tue 6 Jul 2021 12.30 BST Last modified on Tue 6 Jul 2021 12.56 BST
A runway at Bagram US airbase. The massive facility, the size of a small city, had been exclusively used by the US and Nato. There are two runways and over 100 parking spots for fighter jets known as revetments with blast walls that protect each aircraft.
Items left behind include thousands of civilian vehicles, many of them without keys to start them. Before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield, it was invaded by a small army of looters, who ransacked barracks and storage tents before being evicted, according to Afghan military officials.
An Afghan soldier surveys belongings left by the US military. Afghan troops were critical of how the US left Bagram, going in the night without telling the Afghan soldiers patrolling the perimeter.
An Afghan soldier at the base. Gen Mir Asadullah Kohistani, Bagram’s new commander, said the US left behind 3.5m items, all itemised by the departing military. They include tens of thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and military ready-made meals.
An Afghan soldier patrols the base. On Monday, three days after the US departure, they were still collecting piles of garbage including empty drinking bottles and cans left behind by the looters.
An Afghan soldier plays a guitar that was left behind. ‘In one night, they lost all the goodwill of 20 years by leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside,’ said Naematullah, an Afghan soldier who asked that only his one name be used.
Afghan soldiers in Bagram. Kohistani said the US also left behind small weapons and the ammunition for them, but they took heavy weapons with them and destroyed their ammunition.
Forklifts parked at the base. Kohistani insisted Afghan forces could hold on to the heavily fortified facility despite a string of Taliban wins on the battlefield. The airfield also includes a prison with about 5,000 prisoners, many of them allegedly Taliban.
